Be Inspired, a Croydon-based group dedicated to tackling youth crime and supporting young people, has received an £80,000 grant from the Wates Family Enterprise Trust.
Ring craft: Wates manager Marc Rice (right) has been helping at Be Inspired in Norbury for almost three years
The grant will be used to help develop Be Inspired’s “Generation Change” programme, which delivers one-to-one and group work on employability, including confidence building, work experience and job interview skills.
Be Inspired was previously known as Gloves Not Gunz and Urban Yogis UK. Based at Norbury Park Pavilion, the group runs programmes using sport and education to develop life skills, social awareness and self-discipline. Be Inspired offers boxing, yoga and jiu-jitsu classes, alongside mentoring, employment and educational support, and mental health therapy, including support for trauma and substance abuse.
Scott Arnott, director at Be Inspired, said, “Wates has been incredibly supportive, and in a time when funding is scarce, the grant from WFET is a lifeline for our employability work.”
WFET is a registered charity that was founded by the family-owned construction company, Wates Group, which also supports a wide range of social activities in Croydon, where the company was founded more than a century years ago.
In 2024, Wates Group modified aspects of the Be Inspired premises ahead of the grant application to WFET.
“Our grant to Be Inspired is part of a unique three-way relationship we have created between the Wates Family Enterprise Trust, the Wates Group and organisations tackling serious social issues,” said Felicity Mallam, a director of WFET.
“The Trust is providing funding to Be Inspired to support its employability programme with young people across south London over the next two years.”
Wates’s involvement with Be Inspired extends beyond funding and refurbs.
In 2023, Marc Rice, a building services manager with Wates, was asked to deliver a talk to the club. He has been attending coaching sessions ever since. “Wates introduced me to the club, now I’m able to give back,” Rice said.
“Given my own challenging childhood I can relate to many of our members situations; seeing them grow and develop is the reason I’m here.”
One of Be Inspired’s co-founders, Adam Ballard, recently died. One of the programme’s notable success stories has been Precieux Noka. Noka turned his life around through boxing and mentoring following being caught up in country lines drug dealing. Under Ballard’s mentorship, he became a national champion.
An evening session at Be Inspired can involve up to 40 young people, and the group helps 700 to 800 a year. It has provided more than 2,500 hours of mentoring, supported more than 2,300 young people, run more than 100 programmes in six locations.
- For more information on Be Inspired, visit their website www.beinspireduk.co.uk
Read more: When people talk, things happen and they get things done
Read more: Social initiative has sports club punching above their Wates
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